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Cisco Cloud Services Router vs MikroTik Cloud Router Switch comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Cloud Services Router
Ranking in Routers
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MikroTik Cloud Router Switch
Ranking in Routers
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Ethernet Switches (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Routers category, the mindshare of Cisco Cloud Services Router is 4.5%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is 7.5%, up from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Routers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
MikroTik Cloud Router Switch7.5%
Cisco Cloud Services Router4.5%
Other88.0%
Routers
 

Featured Reviews

VENKATESHREDDY - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate IT Director at Diligent Global
Manageable, provides excellent support, and easily integrates with other products
One central area for improvement in Cisco is its product line offering. Cisco has ISE and other products, such as DNS Center and other components. Instead of small to medium-sized customers purchasing devices and maintaining the devices, it would be great if customers could have subscriptions. A CAPEX/OPEX model instead of that Cisco code, where the pricing model is subscription-based, would give much better flexibility for the customers. The pricing and model for Cisco Cloud Services Router and other Cisco products could be improved. One good example of what I want to be added to the Cisco Cloud Services Router in its next version is for it to be more of a plug-and-play product. For example, Juniper has developed QR codes, so if you need to plug in a device, you scan from your phone and connect to the internet. That's it. You can provision the device remotely through the cloud orchestrator, so I want to see a similar function or feature in Cisco Cloud Services Router.
Andriejus Artamonovas - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Specialist at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees
Has supported deeper configuration through traffic mirroring and advanced VLAN setup
The main reason why MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is usually chosen is its raw performance to price ratio. In comparison to UniFi switches, MikroTik Cloud Router Switch can mirror all ports for traffic inspection for further traffic analysis, which UniFi cannot do. VLANs in MikroTik Cloud Router Switch are always useful. The way MikroTik implements VLAN-aware switching at the bridge level is hidden in the configuration. Making CRS work as a simple VLAN-aware switch requires deeper configuration, which is not intuitive. VLANs support individual interfaces not part of the bridge, allowing for double VLANing. You can create a VLAN interface in the interfaces context and also create a bridge interface, add physical ports, create VLANs for that bridge interface, and assign tagged and untagged ports and VLANs. Load balancing is one of the key components. The feature itself is quite efficient and works reliably on MikroTik Cloud Router Switch. The very basic setup is one of my favorites because they have their protocol where I can connect through the MAC address right on Layer 2, and I don't lose connectivity to the switch if I mess up with bridging or IP addressing.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"This solution is scalable."
"The most valuable feature is the SNMP traps that I use to monitor the router and the availability of the network."
"The most important feature is that it is designed for mobile vehicle communication in harsh conditions."
"The routing service for NPLS called Layer 3-IP is fantastic."
"The bandwidth and throughput are pretty good."
"AWS has a reference architecture to enable the Cisco routers in high availability and Transit VPC. This is a very powerful router and can enable us to use Transit VPC in AWS, and this is a very powerful feature that we use."
"It seems pretty stable. We have never had any issues with it."
"Overall, it is a solid product and a good router."
"The traffic monitoring capabilities are excellent."
"It's a well-rounded solution for routing."
"A valuable aspect is its user-friendly configuration, making it accessible even for individuals with basic technical knowledge."
"It is easy to set up."
"The initial setup is easy."
"The tool has impacted our company's network costs and productivity in a perfect manner and percentage-wise, I can say it is 120 percent."
"The most valuable feature is that it has better throughput than its competitors."
"The interface management and the user access management is pretty good."
 

Cons

"I would like some deployment examples and guides specific to AWS VPCs and how to separate your subnets. Then, how they tie-in with the Internet gateway and any NAT services that we are running on our VPC. This would be extremely helpful."
"I would like to see better security, where there are more access controls and data confidentiality."
"You can use this router in a scalable solution but it has its limitations."
"The ease of use within the AWS environment needs to improve. Sometimes, it is very esoteric in how you use it. Therefore, you have to learn to use it, then you are able to."
"The configuration is difficult."
"They have an online registration that happens after they pick up block months. If they could decrease to yearly or something, sometimes the device is not cell phone accessible. That becomes an issue or challenge for us. If that can be improved, that would be really great."
"I would like the ability to moderate between devices on-premise to off-premise. This would be a vast improvement."
"It is too complex. It is not easy to set up, even with the documentation that they provided. It is a little confusing."
"It happens that you may find your network is down, if you reboot the switch, they come up. However, sometimes, they reset themselves. That's a big issue."
"The area for improvement is security. MikroTik is mostly used by medium and small businesses, so the security is not as robust as Cisco."
"Stuff that I'd like to be improved is really just training and documentation because I think the feature set is full. Another improvement I'd suggest is that their new, bigger releases should be a bit more stable."
"The bulk efficiencies and the control of traffic could be a bit better."
"Most of the time, the MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is stable. If I were to rate the stability on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is the best, I would give it a 5."
"The user interface could improve and they should allow a license for IBS."
"MikroTik Cloud Router Switch needs improvement in the area of security, although the recent models are addressing this."
"Technical support could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Purchasing it through the AWS Marketplace was very simple. We went through the AWS Marketplace because it was the easiest way to get the product up and running very quickly."
"Purchasing through the AWS Marketplace was easy; click a button and you have it."
"You do need to pay a licensing fee to use the solution. You can do a yearly or three-year subscription. The product itself is quite expensive. It would be ideal if they offered the product at a cheaper price."
"Cisco Cloud Services Router is an expensive product. My company pays for the product yearly, and the price reaches roughly $800,000. Though Cisco Cloud Services Router is expensive and its competitors offer better pricing, when it comes to support, it's unbeatable."
"The cost needs improvement. It is very expensive through the AWS Marketplace."
"This solution is kind of expensive."
"The licensing model is good with this appliance: Bring Your Own License (BYOL)."
"The pricing is good for what it offers."
"This product has a one-time cost and there is no licensing fee."
"They came with the licensing when we purchased them."
"I consider it to be a cost-effective solution."
"In Pakistan, if you buy this cloud router, it's approximately $700 for the device."
"I believe the price of the tool is high, but it is okay for the services we get from it."
"The price of the solution is fair and there is a one-time license purchase only."
"The price is competitive."
"The licensing for MikroTik is great. It's easy to enter, especially for small businesses. Their model is great."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Comms Service Provider
13%
Educational Organization
13%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about MikroTik Cloud Router Switch?
The tool has impacted our company's network costs and productivity in a perfect manner and percentage-wise, I can say it is 120 percent.
What needs improvement with MikroTik Cloud Router Switch?
It can be difficult to identify key functions for MikroTik Cloud Router Switch. I experience functionality limitations, particularly when trying to find specific features. It would be beneficial to...
 

Also Known As

Cisco CSR, Cisco Cloud Services Router 1000v, Cisco CSR 1000v
MikroTik CRS Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Under Armour, HealthSparq, Adobe
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Cloud Services Router vs. MikroTik Cloud Router Switch and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.